In his speech to the 2016 Labour Party conference the First Minister of Wales, Rt Hon Carwyn Jones, called for a “deep and thorough investigation into the changing nature of work”.

To prepare the ground for this, we were asked to review the existing evidence base to explore what is known and is not yet known about the future of work in Wales.

We undertook an evidence review, looking to identify important trends and future scenarios, the opportunities and challenges that these pose for Wales, and how the Welsh Government might wish to respond. In the process, we also sought to identify evidence gaps and areas where we believe that further research would be useful to Ministers.

This an issue of wider UK and international interest. In presenting our work we were keen to bring some of the leading thinkers in this area together so that we might all present our work and discuss its implications.